Whistling past the graveyard…and wondering if the revolution will ever begin.

The Wisdom Of Europe: No Fracking

While the US rushes headlong toward the short-term profits of fracking, Europe is more cautious. Latest example–France’s constitutional court just denied an American company’s challenge of a ban on fracking.

PARIS — France’s highest court on Friday upheld a government ban on a controversial drilling technique known as hydraulic fracturing, in a defeat for a method that has revolutionized the oil and natural gas industry in the United States.

The Constitutional Council ruled against a challenge by Schuepbach Energy, an American company, whose exploration permits were revoked after the French Parliament banned the practice.

The fact that it was an American company they were slapping down must have been particularly enjoyable for the French jurists.

Tim Zimmermann

I am a Washington-DC based writer, interested in politics, history and adventure. I am a Correspondent for Outside magazine, Associate Producer and Co-Writer of the documentary Blackfish, a former Senior Editor and Diplomatic Correspondent for US News & World Report, and author of The Race (Houghton Mifflin, 2002).